brutal luck

It's almost miraculous the bad luck streak we have had lately. Where to start? First: although Brugges was adorable, we did not enjoy searching for our hostel for two hours, on foot, and then realizing it was actually a thirty second walk from where we started- lierally. I don't exaggerate, thirty seconds. If that combined with the crazy sleep-walker I mentioned earlier, werent enough, the second night was just rediculous: Long story short, the hostel staff go home at the end of the night, leaving 50 or so guests to their own devices. In this case it was us, about thirty 20-year-old English choir members and a few randos. Around 2:30 a.m. the fire alarm goes off- for an hour. The street is empty.. no fire truck, no Politie. And of course nobody knows what to do. Finally someone hits it hard enough to shut it off. It turns out that the people responsible are 3 30-year-old, coked-out Spanish guys who, at this point could be found in their tighty whiteys harassing some girls with an aerosol can- lighter combination. Eventually, they passed out in the hallway and the cops were called. naturally, they didnt do anything about it.

After that, we checked into a hostel in Ghent, (so cool, but construction on every street corner, im afraid.) At midnight, an alarm went off in someones bag- which was locked- and it beeped for about 45 minutes. Then, we went to Amsterdam for round two. After following some really dodgey instructions all the way out of town; walking at least an hour and a half back in; and then finally being helped by a really nice Brit.. we found our hostel. It is easily the most sketchy one yet. I'm not even going to describe it, but for 15€ each per night, I guess you get what you pay for. Lets just say I would NEVER take my shoes off in that place. Or shower. Eugh.. So today after we finally make it to Bruxelles: It is impossible to find a train to Paris. This is the first time we have had any trouble with trains, but apparently this is the wost weekend to travel to Paris for some reason. When we finally caught a wifi signal, it turns out Bruxelles only has one hostel in the whole central area! How is that possible!? Please.. We finally found a place but got so lost that we had to take a cab, and the place turned out to be pretty far out of the way. All this, because we tried to go back to Paris. But its worth it.. So tomorrow we try our luck in Lille. Oh and our feet are absolutely covered in mosquito bites.

Here are some pics.. hopefully I don't have trouble downloading them tonight. Fingers crossed- maybe our luck has turned around.

xo